Question

A student is demonstrating acceleration by throwing two balls. She throws both balls using the same amount of force in the same direction. The first ball she throws has a mass of 0,25 kg and the second ball has a mass of 0.5

Answer 1

In the scenario you described, the student is demonstrating acceleration by throwing two balls with different masses using the same amount of force. According to Newton's second law of motion, the relationship between force (F), mass (m), and acceleration (a) is given by the equation:

\[
F = m \cdot a
\]

From this equation, we can rearrange it to find acceleration:

\[
a = \frac{F}{m}
\]

This means that for a given force, the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to its mass. Therefore, if the student throws both balls with the same force:

1. For the first ball with a mass of 0.25 kg, the acceleration can be calculated as:

\[
a_1 = \frac{F}{0.25}
\]

2. For the second ball with a mass of 0.5 kg, the acceleration is:

\[
a_2 = \frac{F}{0.5}
\]

Since the same force is used for both throws, we can see how the different masses result in different accelerations.

If we simplify this, we see that:

\[
a_1 = \frac{F}{0.25} = 4 \cdot \frac{F}{1} \quad \text{(which means it will accelerate more)}
\]

\[
a_2 = \frac{F}{0.5} = 2 \cdot \frac{F}{1} \quad \text{(which means it will accelerate less)}
\]

From these equations, we can conclude that the ball with a mass of 0.25 kg will experience greater acceleration than the ball with a mass of 0.5 kg when both are thrown with the same force.

In summary, if both balls are thrown with the same force, the lighter ball (0.25 kg) will accelerate more than the heavier ball (0.5 kg).